Gondor's Grumblings

[Gondor]

Great idea, I can bet how tippy they would be ! I've never tried those paints, but am interested now. Is that the Humbrol colour marked on top ? 90 ?

Absolutely correct. Humbrol are using the same colour numbers for their Acrylic range as they do for their Enamel range.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Not much progress recently. 
I have several kits that just need paint to get them almost finished yet although I have the time I never seem to get around to slapping the paint on with the hairy sticks.
I am also thinking of a couple of other things that I need to do. Following on from making a spreadsheet for my F-4 Phantom builds so that I can keep track of what I am doing with them, I have decided to do something similar for Harriers seeing that I have 28 of them so far.
A second project to possibly make a conversion set to turn the Airfix Vampire T10 into an NF10. Seeing that I have a vacform conversion set which I can use as a basis it should not be too difficult seeing that I have an old Airfix FB5/J 28B in the stash for use with a venom kit for some kind of kit bash/conversion, probably exactly what I am going to do with the conversion set.
Parts that need to be built/adapted from the conversion set are; 1) Tail booms with the bullet leading edge and the taller rudders; 2) Cockpit interior as the NF10 had no ejector seats; 3) New nose using the existing conversion set as a basis; 4) Reproduce the cockpit canopy which is a vacform item and has a different shape and set of framing from that used on the majority of T11's.
After that the parts will just need to be dropped into some moulding rubber for someone to turn into a nice little conversion set.

Gondor

[Gondor]

My BoB Spitfire is slowly nearing completion. The green element of the camouflage scheme will be added tomorrow so I should have all the decals added by the end of the week and pictures with back story up on the site over the weekend, if I can keep up the pace I am setting at the moment.
My former J-21 has its undersides painted so I need to give it some more attention before I add its upper camouflage colour.
The Hurricane requires a second coat of paint for the only colour applied to the upper surface so far, there are another two to be added as well but the paint appears to be a little streaky/patchy so I am needing to apply two coats with the hairy stick. The undersides also require a second coat, problem with that is its a mix of two colours so it may not match what is there already.
That's the three that I am pressing on with at the moment, I have another two or three that need more work associated with the cockpits before I can add exterior colour to them but they should not be too far away from finished, well two of them anyway, the third should be a quick build and hopefully a little interesting and confusing for Joe Public

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Hmmmm.....

[Gondor]

The Spitfire has its camouflage finished, the fuselage "Sky" band has just been added so later today touching up will commence. My Lancaster Mk XL has had its patch of filler on the Starboard upper wing sanded and will require a coating of primer once the weather warms up a bit. Its cold today compared to the last few days or very nice weather 
The next aircraft to reach the almost finished stage will be the former J-21 as the Hurricane not only needs a second coat of Humbrol 79, there are another two colours to be applied to the upper surfaces as well.
Lots of things keeping me distracted from the model bench which is slowing my already glacial pace of model making, I have started a spreadsheet to keep track of what I am doing with the 29 or so Harrier kits I have, that's Harrier/AV-8A/C/S's and AV-8B's with a few two seater's of various versions thrown in as well.
I have also decided to put together a few notes I have so I have about various things in an effort to be more coherent, I hope it works 

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I have started a spreadsheet to keep track of what I am doing with the 29 or so Harrier kits I have, that's Harrier/AV-8A/C/S's and AV-8B's with a few two seater's of various versions thrown in as well.
I have also decided to put together a few notes I have so I have about various things in an effort to be more coherent, I hope it works 

This way could lie madness Alastair, be careful.......... 

[Gondor]

I have started a spreadsheet to keep track of what I am doing with the 29 or so Harrier kits I have, that's Harrier/AV-8A/C/S's and AV-8B's with a few two seater's of various versions thrown in as well.
I have also decided to put together a few notes I have so I have about various things in an effort to be more coherent, I hope it works 

This way could lie madness Alastair, be careful.......... 

The notes could change into an article for the whiff mag but the spreadsheet is to keep track of what I intend to do with each model, operator, decals and such. I don't have the financial resources to buy six on one aircraft type when I only need two!
Decided that one of the Harrier family not listed as part of the 29 will be an VZ-12 which will really get a few comments from Joe Public
As for Madness, they did quite a few catchy tunes back in their day 

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Hmmm....Pt.II   

Are you going to let slip some of the plans for the other 28 ?

[Gondor]

Hmmm....Pt.II   

Are you going to let slip some of the plans for the other 28 ?

Oh the VZ-12 is not one of the 29 

The rest will be spread throughout all the operators of the various different designations including the Royal Thai Navy which I definitely have marking for one aircraft but I am sure I have a second set somewhere which I can't lay my hands on for the moment but for my plans I need three sets of Thai decals.

When I get the spreadsheet finished Captain you will be able to look at it to see what I have planed.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Good news! All the camouflage is on the Hurricane 

Bad news is that the Grey looks too dark and the Green looks too bright 

The BoB Spitfire still needs some interior work carried out, control column requires painting and fitted, seatbelts made from tape and added along with the gun sight then it will be a case of touching up and decals. Going to put it on its legs soon and repaint the tyres, in fact I may add the wheels to the legs first then paint the tyres before adding the legs to the aircraft.

The Spreadsheet for the Harriers is starting to take shape. I am basing it on the one I made for my Phantoms but as with that spreadsheet it is only a rough guide to keep track of what I intend to do, things may not end up the way they are written.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

That's a lot of Phantoms as well ! Keeping track is defo a good idea. I should really try and be better at that myself....

[Gondor]

That's a lot of Phantoms as well ! Keeping track is defo a good idea. I should really try and be better at that myself....

Feel free to copy and modify for your own use Captain, same goes for anyone else.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Thanks, I might use somat similar. I have some spreadsheets that can organize themselves by date, which would be kind of neat to track builds with ! Or lack there of.

[Gondor]

Captain, although I call it a spreadsheet, because I use Excel, its more of a table than anything else. I find Excel easy to use and modify, copy or swap parts around is all. So far the Harrier sheet has 44 builds listed, I just realised that there is another one to be added which makes 45 builds to do in total so far and only 34 kits in the stash although the totals I am now giving include the Kestrel and P.1127 as well. I suppose I should really add the P.1154 as well 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Thought I would add the Harrier spreadsheet so that people can see what I have added to it so far. There are gaps for some of the models I have, not added the Esci kits into the list yet nor most of the Airfix kits I have but its a rough idea.

Good news on the Hurricane front, the replacement green looks good rather than the Humbrol 101 that I was using from a painting guide. 

Gondor